Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
Sunday, October 1st, 2006
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" was the quote that Neil Armstrong spoke in 1969 when he planted his foot on the moon. Or, did he? Armstrong has been criticized for years by historians for his lack of good grammar at such a momentous event. Well, he always claimed that he made the statement as follows:
"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." To say "a man" is far better, of course. It makes sense. Well, the instant replay of science has possibly proven Armstrong correct in his recollection and grammar.
What are the ramifications of rewriting history by instant replay? Truth is that we never quite have the picture complete, even with our science and technology. There is always more to learn. I think historians might have done well to assume the best, but the recordings I have heard as a child did not indicate "a" in his famous statement. In fact, no one seemed to care as far as I recalled. (I was in diapers of course). Grammar or not, we all understand what he meant to say.
Does grammar change history?’
HT: Wired.com – It Is ‘One Small Step for a Man’
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
This is for real. Scientists in Europe are growing meat in a test tube. One effort is using pig stem cells to grow muscle tissue in potentially mass quantities. This pig muscle stuff called "vitro meat" could have better health benefits than traditional meat–you know, the kind that comes from actual living animals. But, what about the taste? Here is what Wired’s Lakshmi Sandhana wrote:
Taste is another unknown variable. Real meat is more than just cells; it has blood vessels, connective tissue, fat, etc. To get a similar arrangement of cells, lab-grown meat will have to be exercised and stretched the way a real live animal’s flesh would.
Yummy! Imagine a device that stretches these artificial sheets of meat.
The technology to grow a juicy steak, however, is still a decade or so away. No one has yet figured out how to grow blood vessels within tissue.
Read the whole article in Wired: Test Tube Meat Nears Dinner Table
Are you game for artificially grown meat!
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
Beans, beans, there good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you…..and then silence.
Scientists have made a bean that is flatulent free. I am not sure why, but here is what the team leader has to say who made this new bean.
The team led by Marisela Granito said: "Given that flatulence is one of the main limiting factors for the consumption of this important foodstuff, the implementation of processes which allow for nutritious and non-flatulence-producing beans to be obtained would be interesting."
I have never had this problem. I mean the problem of flatulence limiting my consumption of beans. Frijoles! I love them. Oh well.
She [Dr Frankie Phillips] added: "Despite the obvious social concerns, there is no physiological harm from the flatulence caused by eating beans and other legumes, and considerable nutritional benefits from eating them owing to fibre content as well as a wide range of other nutrients and phytonutrients."
Read the whole article on BBC News: Experts make flatulence-free bean
Monday, January 30th, 2006
If you are in business, science or an artist who creates it seems to me that things are discovered rather 
than "invented" in our world. Solomon had something to say about this.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
As a musician, my best songwriting seems to be discovered. The raw combination of notes, rhythms and textures that move people are discovered. The famous Michelangelo once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He knew his art was not a creation, but a discovery
In WIRED magazine’s February print edition , Physicist Pete Vukusic of the University of Exeter in UK found that new technology dealing with LED mimics African butterflies. It took MIT researchers five years to develop "high-efficiency LEDs" that the light-reflecting properties African butterflies already mimic.
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